Morgana Standard Time
by Ray by Another Name
Summary: Arthur deals with his father's expectations and the start of his 3rd year at the University of London. Modern AU. Implied future Merlin/Arthur.


Arthur deals with his father's expectations and the start of his 3rd year at the University of London. Modern AU. Implied future Merlin/Arthur.

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Morgana Standard Time

Morgana was always late – twenty minutes, almost to the second. Arthur was well-verses in Morgana Standard Time though, so he compensated. He arrived fifteen minutes late to the restaurant so as to keep the alone time with his father to as short as possible.

After fifteen more minutes Arthur started to consider drowning himself in the soup the server had brought for the table. Uther had spent most of the time ranting about Arthur's grades, because taking a double course load wasn't enough; he also had to ace everything. How dare he get a B in the Chaucer class Uther hadn't wanted him to take in the first place?!

"Please tell me you haven't been talking about this the whole time?" Morgana asked as she walked up, kissing Uther on the street, "Really, Daddy, he's about to start his third year with degrees in Political Science and Business. One B isn't making any kind of difference long term."

Uther scoffed as Morgana took her seat, "Yes, well, only because it's in some frou-frou English class rather than something important." Arthur met Morgana's eyes, begging for her to change the subject. Any other subject was better than this.

"Let's talk about everyone's favorite subject, now," Morgana slipped her napkin onto her lap, smiling wide, "Me!"

Arthur shook his head, amused. Morgana waived a waiter over to order her entrée and dish out her soup. Uther smiled at his daughter and Arthur rip some bread to dip into his soup.

"Go on, then," Uther gestured towards Morgana with his glass of wine.

Morgana sat tall in her chair, "I was in a call with my agent. She's got me a job working for a modeling company right here in London."

"So you'll be returning?" Uther looked pleased, "Stay at home?" Morgana nodded. Not that she had much choice. Arthur knew his father would never be ok with his daughter living in the city by herself, or, worse, a man.

"A friend of mine even found a lovely studio space for me to check out this week," Morgana continued to explain as they ate.

Arthur grinned to himself around his spoon. There was no doubt in his mind that Leon was the so-called friend and that the studio was near his Primrose Hill apartment. Morgana always knew how to spin things with their father, had him wrapped around her finger.

"I'll probably keep some things at the studio though, the house would be a bit far for early morning shoots. I hate getting up before dawn." Morgana didn't even look up from her soup, utterly nonchalant, and Uther just nodded his understanding. And like that, his sister was living with her boyfriend.

Arthur held in his snarky comments till after dinner, when their father had taken a car back to his office for a few things before returning home. Morgana followed Arthur to his car for a ride back to her 'hotel.' Or so she told their father.

"Some things at the studio?" Arthur nundged Morgana when they were both seated in the privacy of his sedan.

Morgana smirked, "Yes, some."

Arthur laughed, ducking his head as Morgana swatted at him. Primrose Hill was only a short drive from the restaurant in Hyde Park, but traffic always made it feel longer.

"So," Morgana looked at Arthur expectantly, "What classes are you taking this year?"

Arthur groaned, flinging his head back against his seat," Lots of business classes, totally boring. Some math, also boring. A few poly sci that Uther shoved at me last week, even more boring."

"Anything not boring?" Morgana prodded with her elbows, "Anything in English?"

"I managed to squeeze in a Shakespeare class without him noticing. That's all though."

Morgana smiled at him, "That's wonderful!" She squeezed his arm affectionately, "You'll be some famous author before you know it. Living the low life in a tiny apartment."

"Doubtful," Arthur said, "You know Uther'll never let that happen. He's had my life planned out for me since before you were born. And you heard him, English is worthless, I'll never be able to take enough classes to actually learn anything."

The car came to a sudden stop in front of Leon's building. Arthur kept his eyes straight ahead and his jaw tight. Morgana unbuckled her seat belt and reached over to force his head towards her.

She forced his eyes to look at hers, "Let me worry about Uther. I'll work on him."

"This isn't like you and your photography, 'Ana. I'm suppose to help Uncle Agravaine after graduation, take over the company. You're not meant to do that, you're - "

"I know what I'm meant to do, Arthur," Morgana interrupted him, her voice low, and Arthur looked away again.

They sat in silence for a few moments until a car behind them started honking.

"I'm in London now," Morgana forced his chin back to face her again, "I'm very effective in person. Let me try."

Arthur smiled, "It'll be nice to have you close again."

Morgana kissed the top of his head, "Big sister will handle everything!" Arthur rolled his eyes as she let him go to climb out of the car. She ducked her head back in ,"You work on being happy ok? Becoming that starving artist you've always wanted to be."

Arthur nodded and she walked away. He drove off. He trusted Morgana, more than anyone else in the world, but even she wasn't a miracle worker.

School started the next day and Arthur was taking more than twice the recommended credit load – only permitted because his father wanted it to be. The year was going to be pure hell, he'd probably only be able to read half of his reading for the Shakespeare class – the only one he actually wanted to take.

Monday morning, though, he was up, bright and early. He had Managerial Economics first thing, then Corporate Finance at ten. He managed to eat a banana while crossing campus for some poly sci class about international relations. He kept his attention on it just long enough to get the impression that he was going to hate it.

Arthur had all of five minutes to grab coffee from a cart before his next class. After that he had the blessed break of Shakespeare before the damned calculus class his father had decided he should take. Not that he actually needed that one for his degree, no, Uther just wanted to torture his son. Arthur was positive of this. The longer he thought of it, the angrier he got.

"You should eat some chocolate," a man standing behind him drew Arthur out of his murderous day-dream. Arthur turned around to take in the lanky man – he had dark hair and bright eyes. He looked overly-skinny and he had large ears, but he was cute in that lost puppy way that Arthur really likes.

"Excuse me?" Arthur said, without stuttering thank you very much.

The man shrugged, "It's only the first day and you look like you're about to down six cups of coffee and go on a murderous rampage. Possibly due to a caffeine overload, if the can of Red Bull sticking out of your bag is anything to go by.

Arthur smiled, almost about to laugh. He had an accent. That was just unfair. He was even Welsh! Uther hated the Welsh, this man was literally every kind of bad for him. He must have done something really bad in a past life to deserve this bad of karma.

"You're next," the man pointed behind Arthur, the queue had moved up. Arthur ordered his coffee and started walking away without saying anything more to the man. Arthur looked over his shoulder as he left to watch him order a chai tea.

Very, very bad karma.

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